


Wandering eyes that give you away

by HatterLifeStyle



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, are we really going to pretend that certified genius Lena Luthor hasn't?, by now everyone and their hamster has noticed how Kara's eyes roam, let's be real
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2018-10-31 06:03:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10893234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HatterLifeStyle/pseuds/HatterLifeStyle
Summary: Lena Luthor is a scientist, dammit! And being a scientist occasionally means wearing low-cut collars in order to determine whether your best friend and the city's resident hero are in fact one and the same.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot be blamed for this. It's practically canon.

Lena is the first to admit that Kara's disguise may just be brilliant in its simplicity. 

Still though, anyone who spent any amount of time in the company of Kara's two personas should eventually put two and two together. After all, Kara may try to keep them separate from one another but they do bleed through her barriers far more than she probably realizes, made particularly visible in Kara Danvers's fierceness when her convictions face opposition and the gentleness in Supergirl's interactions with the people she has sworn to protect.

It's also noticeable in the way that both Kara and Supergirl seem unable to keep their eyes from flickering to Lena's chest whenever her shirt's collar so much as peaks below her clavicle.

Admittedly that last one was a bit of a shock when she first noticed it.

If she's completely honest though, Lena has to admit that it took her a while to put the pieces together. Sure, no amount of glasses, pony tails and cardigans could hide the similarities for long, and considering how close Kara and Supergirl actually were Lena couldn't help but start wondering why she'd never actually seen them together even once. But the furtive looks... 

Those she definitely noticed.

At first she'd chalked them up to pure coincidence until her scientist's mind decided to put the theory to the test. Sitting through numerous meetings while enduring some of the board members' leering gazes was absolutely worth it to see Kara Danvers choke on air as soon as she walked into Lena's office for a quick lunch and noticed that day's outfit.

"Everything alright?" Lena had asked, smiling innocently after having watched Kara's reaction carefully. It was endearing, really, the wide-eyed surprise, the flickering of the eyes to the side, to her collar, back to the side, the ever so subtle gulp that she's sure she wouldn't have noticed had she not been observing the other woman keenly, and finally, the way her eyes turned to the heavens quickly before closing, as if sending a silent prayer to some higher power.

"Yep, definitely!" Had been Kara's enthusiastic answer as she turned to busy herself with placing the meal she had brought on the coffee table, the task seeming to require a tad more concentration today than usual. She was so busy arranging everything that she failed to notice the victorious little grin on Lena's face as she settled herself in her usual spot on the couch. By the time Kara turned back to Lena, handing her a couple of napkins as well as the utensils she had brought for her, the grin had softened into a fond smile.

There was one thing to be said about Kara, her eyes only ever wandered when she was caught by surprise. Lena suspected that it had something to do with the amount of practice she had at making sure that she respected people's privacy, what with all the heightened senses at her disposal. Of course, that was if her little theory proved to be true... Either way she appreciated Kara's efforts to be respectful, the apparent ease with which she managed it.

They both tucked into their meals, and as always Lena found herself relaxing into the ebb and flow of the conversation, so much so that when Kara's phone suddenly rang while she had been mid-way through a sentence they had both jumped. Kara had quickly checked the screen before apologizing and taking the call. What followed was a minute or so of frantic nods and mumbled affirmations before she hung up and quickly began scooping up her belongings.

"Lena I'm so sorry..." Kara seemed to flounder once the apology was out, and maybe it was just Lena's imagination but she could have sworn she could see the gears turning in Kara's mind as she tried to think of a suitable reason to cut their lunch together short.

Lena decided to take pity on her.

"It's fine, Kara," She assured, rising from the couch as well and lightly touching the other girl's arm in a placating gesture. "I'm assuming Snapper wants you back in the office?"

"Uhm, uh, yep!" And if Lena noticed the way Kara unconsciously shook her head no while she said that (she did), she didn't comment on it. "That was... definitely my boss from CatCo telling me to get back there and... finish a story." She finished lamely. Lena couldn't completely bite back her laugh at that because the fact that Kara stumbled over a lie that was handed to her on a silver platter is hilarious in its absurdity.

"Go on then," She urged. "We wouldn't want to test his patience now, would we?" 

Kara beamed at her and Lena's breath caught in her throat even as she smiled back because Kara just looked so grateful, as if the simple fact that Lena didn't feel entitled to her time and attention was some great gift. Once Kara finished tossing her belongings in her bag she tugged Lena into a brief goodbye hug before practically jogging out the door.

And if ten minutes later Lena turned on the news only to see Supergirl battling an Alien threat near the National City Docks well... She supposed she'd just have to chalk that up to coincidence.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait guys, I was on a trip this past week and with only my phone on me writing conditions were less than ideal. Here's a little "intermission" of sorts before we get to the second part of Lena's experiment.

Supergirl's visits to Lena's office, though still not a common occurance, were slowly growing more frequent as time went by. They rarely lasted more than a few minutes and if they did it usually meant that Lena was in for an impromptu visit to the DEO in order to help with the latest alien related crisis National City was facing. Lena had spent the last week or so hoping that Supergirl would stop by for a quick chat so that phase two of her little experiment could take place.

Things rarely go exactly the way Lena wishes they did.

Because of course the next time that Supergirl shows up in her office it's through her office doors instead of her balcony and with agent Alex Danvers at her heels. Lena sat up straighter, knowing from the twin grim looks that their visit was rooted in something serious. Any thoughts of her little experiment flew out the window as she mentally readied herself for whatever it is the two had come to her for.

"Supergirl, Agent Danvers." She nodded. "How can I help." She went straight to the point, knowing that with the way Supergirl's jaw was slowly clenching and unclenching that time was probably of the essence. Both women hesitated for a beat and it was enough for Lena to sigh, shake her head slightly and stand. "What has Lillian done this time?"

Supegirl's brow furrowed and Alex was the one to speak up, a sympathetic look crossing her face for a moment. "She..." Alex cleared her throat, shook herself slightly before standing straighter, letting the mask of a DEO agent cloud her features. "We've gotten word that she's gotten her hands on some new alien weaponry. Enhanced them with some Luthorcorp technology."

Lena flinched ever so slightly and nodded. "Of course she has..." If Kara were there in that moment she would have swooped in to comfort her already, because no matter how many times Lena's family, her mother, had let her down every new instance stung just a little bit, and Kara knew that. Lena noticed Supergirl's hand moving to reach for her before she seemed to catch herself, dropping her hand back to her side in a tightly clenched fist. That slight slip, that tiniest sliver of Kara was enough to get her to stand straight once more. "What can I do to help?" She asked again, chin raised determinedly as she looked from one woman to the other.

"We were hoping you'd be able to help us track her. She's been laying low and we don't like it."

"Of course. Let me just grab a few files that might help and I'll drive down." She said, already heading towards the hidden safe she kept in her office with some of the more delicate documents that remained from Lex's reign of Luthorcorp.

"I'll take you." Supergirl finally spoke up, voice soft but firm. Lena turned from the safe to throw a questioning look at her and Alex looked like she was about to protest but Supergirl continued. "It'll be quicker and the sooner we take care of this the better." Lena smiled slightly and nodded before gathering the rest of her things and standing at the ready by the balcony. Alex shook her head, resigned to Supergirl's decision.

"Just try to avoid giving the press any reason to speculate as to why Lena Luthor was seen being flown out of her office bridal style by Supergirl at 10am on a Friday." Alex said, smirking as she turned to the door.

Lena chuckled quietly watching Supergirl sputter while trying to come up with a response to the Agent's teasing. Alex didn't give her time to reply. She calmly exited the room and Lena could just barely hear her telling Jess to clear her schedule for the day, since she was needed elsewhere. Jess, bless her, had long since learned not to question these sorts of things.

Supergirl huffed quietly and turned to Lena once more. "Ready?" She asked, stepping outside onto the balcony. Lena smiled and followed her.

"Of course." She said, wrapping her arms around the other woman's neck as strong arms scooped her up before flying off towards the DEO.


	3. Chapter 3

She felt the tension in the DEO as soon as Supergirl set her down on the floor of the command center. With no leads to go on most agents were standing around, uncertain and restless, waiting anxiously for the tech team to work their magic. Winn and Vazquez had swirled around in their chairs as soon as they heard Supergirl's landing and no sooner had they laid eyes on Lena than they seamlessly began to move. Winn instantly booted up that computer beside his own (unofficially known by every agent as Lena's computer) while Vazquez jumped away from her monitor, tablet in hand ready to project any and all known information onto the large screens in the room to debrief Lena.

"Any new leads?" Supergirl asked, stepping into the center of the command room, fists resting on her hips in a near perfect imitation of her usual confident pose. It would have been completely convincing were it not for the unusual extra tension in her posture that let Lena know that it was sheer habit instead of true confidence that had made her take up the pose.

"Unfortunately, no." Winn winced apologetically as he said it, but he tilted his head in Lena's direction and his usual cheery grin was soon back in place. "But we do have an extra genius at our disposal. That'll definitely come in handy." And if Lena smiled ever so slightly at the comment, it had much less to do with the way Winn alluded to her intellect and more to do with the way that whenever they got to collaborate on any project, whether it be in the DEO or a little more personal, he always seemed ecstatic to have her. However, now wasn't the time to linger on those thoughts so instead she went into business mode.

"What do we know?"

It didn't take long for Winn and Vazquez to bring her up to speed. After all, they were running on very little information and Lena didn't need them to delve into detail to understand exactly what they are saying to her, so it wasn't long at all before she was stepping away from the screens on the wall and moving to her work station, Supergirl trailing close behind her.

"Right," She said, beginning to roll up one of her sleeves. Her thought process stumbled momentarily when she noticed Supergirl watching the silken green fabric get rolled up the expanse of her forearm and for a moment Lena was once again reminded of the experiment she had been hoping to conduct, but she immediately pushed the thought away, set her priorities straight. She did allow herself to raise an eyebrow ever so slightly when Supergirl met her eye after she started rolling up the other sleeve. Supergirl immediately gulped and whirled away, her cape billowing after her. Lena shook her head ever so slightly and smiled to herself. She sat down and once her sleeves were well out of the way she immediately got to work plugging in the flash drives she had brought from her office and pulling up file after file.

"These are all the files on possible technologies developed by Luthorcorp that could be used for the kind of enhancements you described. If my theory is correct..."

It took hours of exhausting and stressful work, but eventually Lena found herself back in her office. They had managed to narrow down the components used to enhance the weapons and in doing so managed to track down their exact location. Supergirl had launched into the sky towards the sight followed closely by Alex and a heavily armed DEO strike team and Lena had been escorted back to her office by a rookie agent who had not seemed all that pleased to be left behind all the action.

It was a hot afternoon by the time Lena reached her office. Her rolled up sleeves gave her a slight reprieve from the heat but as she poured herself a glass of water from the pitcher on her shelf she popped open a couple of buttons on her blouse for some extra relief. All her meetings for the day had been cancelled so she saw no reason to suffer through the heat just to avoid looking too disheveled.

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful in comparison to her morning, she spent most of it going over paperwork in an attempt to make the most of the fact that Jess had effectively managed to cancel all her meetings for the day. By the time the sun had begun to set she felt confident with her progress and decided to allow herself the luxury of heading home at a reasonable hour for once. She dismissed Jess for the night with a fond smile and began the meticulous process of organizing her desk and gathering her belongings. Despite having been free of her meetings for the day the amount of work she'd put into tracking down her mother's latest project had been extremely mentally taxing and she was looking forward to heading home, preferably to curl up with a hot drink and a good book.

Her back was to her balcony as she stored her laptop and tablet into her bag absentmindedly but the sound of rustling fabric and a pair of boots lightly making contact with her balcony drew her back into the moment. A smile graced her features. She really shouldn't have been all that surprised. Supergirl had been making it a habit to stop by her office to thank her whenever she helped out at the DEO and Lena had to admit that she greatly appreciated the extra effort. If she felt as tired as she did having simply been investigating from behind a screen for a few hours she could only begin to imagine how Supergirl must feel after having faced the threat head on. And yet she never failed to show up, her smile tired but triumphant as she strolled into Lena's office and gratefully acknowledged her help.

"How did it go?" Lena asked, smiling over her shoulder at Supergirl before continuing her search for the charger she was sure she'd left by her couch earlier that afternoon.

"Cadmus won't be using those weapons anytime soon thanks to you." Another look over her shoulder confirmed what Lena had thought she'd heard in Supergirl's voice; gratitude and pride and something close to affection. Things she was slowly beginning to allow herself to see directed at her in Supergirl's smile as well as Kara's.

Lena shook her head at the praise, but she felt warm. Grateful for the chance to prove herself.

She swept her eyes over the general area of her couch one last time before resigning herself to searching for the charger tomorrow. Instead she crossed her office to stand beside Supergirl who had turned her gaze out Lena's window towards the sight of National City bathed in the day's last rays of sunlight. Lena had realized somewhere along the line of these impromptu meetings between them that the sight of National city stretching out before her seemed to center Supergirl after a busy day. "Just doing my part." Lena said.

Supergirl huffed in what seemed to be equal parts amusement and exasperation and turned away from the window to face Lena. "Miss Luthor, how many times must I tell you that-"

Whatever Supergirl had been about to say was abruptly cut off. Lena's brow furrowed and she tore her eyes away from the sprawling view of National City to throw a concerned look at Supergirl. It took her a second to register the fact that the hero's gaze, while directed towards her, was aimed considerably lower than she would have expected. In her exhausted state it took her yet another second to remember the buttons she had undone earlier in the afternoon, but when she did...

When she did she felt incredibly smug.

Smug because Supergirl's mouth was slightly ajar, no doubt due to having cut herself off mid-sentence, and though she was quick to shut it once more the audible click of her teeth seemed only to highlight the fact that it had lingered open for a moment. Her eyebrows were drawn together, raised in obvious surprise and her eyes were still firmly planted just below Lena's collar. All in all it was easy to see that although she was surprised by the sight in front of her she was nothing if not appreciative of it. Of course this all happened in the span of a few seconds before Supergirl jerked her head away, closing her eyes tightly before turning them skyward as a muffled "Rao" left her lips.

And that quiet whisper, that murmured supplication accompanied by the graceful tilt of Supergirl's head, was what confirmed all of Lena's suspicions in one fell swoop, because she had seen Kara do the exact same thing during their lunch date less than a week ago and although no name had been whispered then the rest of the action was so uncannily familiar... There could be no room for doubt.

It was enough to make her want to send her own thanks to Kara's god, because ridiculous though the circumstances might have been this confirmation felt like a blessing if ever she had felt one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to cut this last chapter into two parts so that my updates don't take forever. There might be an extra, fifth chapter in the works as well but it depends on how much material I can come up with as well as how much interest there is for it from you guys.


	4. Chapter 4

Lena was a reckless woman by nature. It had taken Kara only a few sparse encounters to notice it and call her out on it and Lena herself was never one to deny it. It was that reckless nature coupled with the thrill of having her suspicions proven right that drove her to call attention to the way that Supergirl's eyes had lingered far longer than necessary on the expanse of skin revealed by her slightly unbuttoned blouse.

"I take it you like the blouse?" Lena asked, quirking an eyebrow cockily at the way Ka- Supergirl bit at her bottom lip even as she turned to face her once more. Once again Lena could see the effort being put into ensuring that her eyes stayed firmly at her eye level.

"It's extremely flattering, Miss Luthor." Supergirl answered, tilting her chin up ever so slightly as if daring Lena to comment further on her indiscretion. Now how could Lena resist that challenge?

"It's a shame you didn't stop by on Monday. I would have appreciated a second opinion of the top I was wearing then." Now, in Lena's defense, she fully expected Kara -or, well, Supergirl- to play dumb, choke out some lie about not having seen her in well over a month and then laugh it off. She admittedly never would have expected anything like-

"I like this one more. The green brings out your eyes."

Well... That. She never would have expected that.

Lena's office had been quiet when Supergirl had arrived. Lena had been the only one left on her floor of the building and with all her electronics packed up to go home the usual hum from display screens and cooling fans had been noticeably absent. The silence that engulfed the both of them after Supergirl's slip-up though... Lena didn't think she'd ever felt the absence of sound manifest itself around her so viscerally. She realized that both she and Ka- Super- Kara were holding their breath and she could see the way Kara's eyes seemed to dart across her face, searching for any sign that she had given herself away.

Whatever Kara saw, it seemingly resigned her to giving away her secret. She swallowed once nervously, a sound that finally broke the oppressive silence that surrounded them, and then let out a deep breath that ended almost as a sigh. She reached across the small space separating them and took Lena's hand in hers. It was that small contact that made Lena draw in a sharp breath, made her heart pick up its pace until she could feel it pounding against her rib-cage because she knew with startling clarity what it was that Kara was planning on saying now, and Lena dreaded it.

"Lena I-"

"Don't." Lena's quiet voice cut straight through what Kara was about to say and left her in a startled, wide-eyed silence. Lena's free hand shot forward so that both of her hands were wrapped around Kara's. She could feel them shaking but the sudden spike of adrenaline that had driven her to speak up in the first place was making it hard for her to tell if it was her hands or Kara's that were doing the actual shaking.

Given the circumstances it may very well have been both.

Lena bit her lip as she tried to gather her thoughts, watching as Kara's face slowly morphed from the startled look she'd had upon being interrupted to one of profound confusion. But Kara was just as patient with her as always and instead of forcing the issue she squeezed Lena's hands, the pressure gentle but warm and reassuring all the same, until the shaking stopped and Lena's thoughts started to sort themselves out.

She never thought her little experiment would yield such conclusive results and she certainly had never planned on forcing Kara into confessing to her secret identity. It wasn't something she would ever wish to force her best friend into doing and yet here they were: Kara cornered into revealing her secret and Lena with seemingly no way of letting her off the hook without basically admitting to knowing it. But Lena was stubborn, and Kara's comfort was paramount, and Lena was willing to play the fool for it.

"Whatever it is you were going to say... Whatever information you might feel like giving... I don't want you to feel like you owe me anything, Supergirl."

Kara's brow furrowed for a moment before she shook her head, a huff of laughter leaving her as her lips quirked up into a timid smile. "Lena..." She tugged gently on their interlocked hands but the seriousness of the moment had Lena rooted to the spot. "You're far too brilliant to be playing dumb now of all times." She tugged again and this time Lena yielded to her, allowing Kara to pull her closer to her body until one hand lay nestled between Lena's shoulder-blades and the other cupped the back of her head, guiding her into tucking her face into Kara's neck. "It's me, Lena." She mumbled, pressing her cheek against the crown of her head.

It was the intimacy of the moment, charged with familiarity but also a pleasant newness, that allowed Lena to relax into the touch, let her nuzzle into the warmth of the body she knew so well even if it was covered by a strange, possibly alien, material.

"I know, Kara." She murmured, tangling her fingers in the cape hanging off of Kara's shoulders and using the leverage to pull her that tiny bit closer. "I know..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I'm back with part one of the fallout of Lena's little game. Took me a bit longer than anticipated.


End file.
